especially those who made the ultimate sacrifice. theirs is a war story that deserves to be told. i'm oliver north. good night. ow let's get you back to war stories.

well before the fight to liberate mosul began in mid-october 2016, military experts warned could this be a very bloody affair, certainly been that and a whole lot more. now, a war stories team is once again on the front lines of what may well be the last major battle against isis in iraq. looking at these images of mosul before and after isis, it's easy to forget the promise this city once represented to a free iraq including arab muslims, sunni and shia, kurds,

christians and yazidis. it's being described as the most complex military operation since saddam hussein was toppled in 2003 by u.s.-led coalition. this time iraqi special forces are leading the fight centered in control of mosul. once a vibrant city of 1.5 million people in northwest iraq. an estimated 5,000 iraqi military and police are engaged in bloody house-to-house fighting against suicidal isis jihadis. this as urban warfare and close quarter combat among hundreds of thousands of hostage civilians used as human shields. >> isis upped its game, ieds and other technologies brought brutal casualties to them. they are fighting hard now as we speak. >> reporter: congresswoman martha mcsally served 26 years in the u.s. air force retiring

as colonel. with six deployments in the middle east including iraq and afghanistan holds the extinction of being the first attack pilot to fly in combat. mcsally serves on the armed services and homeland security committees. i sat down with her in our nation's capitol. >> we got to cut them off to put them on their heels and shift the momentum. >> reporter: isis uses drones to direct jihadi suicide truck drivers to their targets, with devastating effect. that's not something that's easily done, it requires a certain degree of sophistication, communications, shouldn't we have those kinds of capabilities to make sure he can't communicate with the truck driver? >> absolutely. there is a level of sophistication they are using to do a targeting cycle. to find, fix and finish and communicate. we have capabilities in order to take out command and control.

>> why shouldn't we be using them now? >> that's a great question. there were 10,000 american troops in iraq until december 2011. boom, they were all gone. >> the problem is that the obama administration was committed to a timeline inclined to leave before the first day of 2012, and we did. and once we did, there was a tsunami. >> professor walid phares is also co secretary-general of the transatlantic parliamentary group on terrorism. the author of numerous books and middle east terrorism analyst for fox news. >> everything in iraq collapsed because of the way we left iraq. >> when i was out there last year and this year looking at the situation underground, i was told by a good number of

particularly kurds that it was fewer than 2,000 isis fighters that actually seized mosul. is that true? >> yes, 2000 or so of jihadists, isis jihadists, came invasion of france, very mobile. >> in that vacuum, describe what happens with the iraqi army that we trained essentially from 2008 to 2011 and continuing to advise and assist and all of a sudden we're gone. what happened to that army? >> they felt that if they would fall, if they are taken prisoners by isis, they'll be beheaded, killed and nobody would give them a hideout or a place to hide. so they started to run away. in late june 2014 mosul fell to isis and hell on earth began for every man, woman and child in the city. their choice, submit or be butchered. on friday july 4, 2014 during

ramadan prayers at mosul's great mosque, abu bactar albaghdadi declared himself the islamic state. >> why did he pick the mosque to deliver his caliphate speech. >> mosul was the real capital of the caliphate. now they call it raqaa. >> they took over the territory but still this administration stood by and did nothing. it wasn't until august of 2014 they started reluctantly conducting military operations but then it was the pinprick strikes, it was barely going after field enforcements, command and control, ability to finance the operation and bring in foreign fighters, train individuals, take territory, terrorize and kill individuals and expert terror to europe

around and the globe. >> unfortunately the vacuum which isis has utilized or took advantage of is still there. >> the fight to rid isis from iraq is personal, born in baghdad, he is the son of kurdish and shiite parents. until the summer of 2016, he was iraq's ambassador to the united states. >> it's a new warfare which isis and isil are trying to project. we talk about american led coalition, but no american leaders up there. >> if you say to me can the war be conducted without the americans, i say not. >> we constantly here about the u.s. led 65-nation coalition. i'll be darned if i see anybody leading from the united states. what's the truth of it? >> we've got a cobbled together group of factions in iraq as you've seen. you've got the kurds, the shia militias, the iraqi formal army.

you've got embedded u.s. advisers, there are some uk and french support going on from the air plus the u.s. airstrikes and intelligence surveillance reconnaissance. >> but there are others who have a stake in the battle for mosul, including iran. while we were waiting to go through the checkpoint, a convoy showed up. the long convoy of mostly commercial vehicles. in fact, this is one of the provisional military units, a shiite militia headed by iranians and the islamic revolutionary guard force and the quds force. >> we were told none of the shiite militias are engaged in this fight. yet there they were, there were people waiting to go into the fight in mosul. what role are the iranians playing in all of this? >> appear to be engaged at some level. if there is the enemy of the enemy is my friend and working together to defeat isis, okay,

i kind of get that. but what is the end stake? i'm concerned about this. we have americans who were killed by the influence of these militias backed by iran, hundreds of them possibly. in the military, you and i call that following, we call that weakness. we have to lead from the front. >> reporter: the battle for mosul is setting the stage for a whole new arrangement in this part of the world and perhaps even a new country called oh, taking some time off. no, i'm scheduling time to go to the bank to get a mortgage. ugh, you're using a vacation day to go to the bank? i know, right? just go to lendingtree.com. get up to five loan offers to compare side by side for free. wow, that's great. wait, how did you get in my kitchen? oh, i followed a raccoon in through your doggie door. [chittering] [gasps] get a better mortgage on your schedule. not the bank's. lendingtree. when banks compete, you win. just think of him as a big cat. [chittering] with rabies.

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. oliver: in war-torn iraq, the idea of democratic governance is still a new concept. >> they are not mature. >> you helped us to plan this. oliver: saddam hussein was overthrown in 2003 by a coalition of 49 nations, by the numbers, nearly 1.5 million u.s. troops served in iraq, operation iraqi freedom and

operation new dawn claims the lives the nearly 4500 americans and left more than 32,000 wounded. in 2011, the obama administration pulled u.s. troops out. isis rushed in. >> the iraqis are paying a great deal for them to be able to cleanse ourselves from isis. oliver: the kurds are the largest ethnic group on earth without a homeland, predominantly sunni, more than 35 million kurds live in iraq, turkey, iran and syria. in iraq, they number about 4.5 million and have their own troops called the peshmerga. despite the site of iraqi army that subjected them to genocide under a brutal tyrant. >> we as the peshmergas, the kurdish people have been the most effective force on the ground stop them, defeat them and break the myth of this organization. >> they have really been holding and gaining the territory against isis. marginalized by the central

government in baghdad. iraq's future is complicated. >> these images say it all about the kurds. april 9th, 2003 u.s. marine used a tank to topple saddam hussein's statue in baghdad. a day later, the kurds used their bare hands to tear down another in kirkuk. >> saddam hussein used every weapon. he unleashed chemical weapons against the kurds and killed close to 5,000 of them. oliver: saddam hussein slaughtered more than 180,000, bodies are still being discovered and the dead are remembered here at the al-hanra monument. the kurds are left holding an empty bag of promises held by every u.s. president and western european leader.

basany is the son of kurdistan president marsude barzani. >> the american people need to know the enormous sacrifice the kurdish people came ever since isis came crashing across the border. >> we have 1500 peshmergas killed and 10,000 wounded, that's a total of 11500 people. and as for civilians, the atrocities are unbelievable. thousands were perished. oliver: this is the military equipment fox news found being used by the peshmerga to fight isis in the spring of 2016. >> this is an american humvee. >> the other one they took from isis. >> we gave this to the iraqi army and the cowards fled and isis captured it from them and you captured it from isis.

since then it's only gotten worse. >> because six iraqi divisions abandoned their posts and left equipment. in a matter of weeks, isis was a full-blown army. oliver: isis exposes risks and gaps in iraqi politics. >> where do you see this going? >> somewhat has not worked in iraq for a number of seasons. a, we are a tribal type, this is not important factor in our calculation. oliver: largest refugee crisis since world war ii. it's a crisis of europeans, crisis for turkey, jordan and certainly for the 1.3 million people that the kurds are having to put up with all on their own, no help. >> no help.

kurdistan has 1.3 to 1.5 million people in a small area. crushing their economy. oliver: the kurds sense another chance for their own nation. a dream repeatedly denied going back to the ashes of world war i when a secret agreement drawn up between great britain and france divvied up the ottoman empire. is this a chance to draw up new borders? >> not a frenchman and a brit, drawing the maps in versailles. >> the agreement shaped the -- just the reminder president woodrow wilson was the first american president or the only president ever that called for the self-determination of the kurdish people at that time. unfortunately it was never realized. oliver: just a few days ago, your father drew a map, which we have here, is this a map of terrain that could be the start

for a kurdish homeland? >> these are the trenches done by the peshmergas and the burms that were built to provide additional security to defend against isis. this is not a political line but we do believe that in principle, baghdad and erbil should come to agreements about their relations. oliver: go inside mosul to see how isis targets those t t t t t

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. oliver: as iraqi forces engage isis fighters in close combat on the streets of mosul, a million people are still trapped from the city. driving on the outskirts of town, we see signs of explosive

devices planted by isis just waiting to kill. these red flags alongside this road are an indication what the challenge is here. they'll say this area has been secured, meaning there are no isis troops left in it, but it's not cleared. secured but not cleared means there are tens of thousands of improvised explosive devices, some of which have been found and marked. >> the red flag on the right side. oliver: but many more have yet to be found. >> the people that are cleaning the mines and ieds are not well protected. the majority of the engineering teams working with the peshmergas are going out there without protection and many have lost their lives because a single mistake is enough to kill you. oliver: isis has hidden the deadly ieds everywhere, even in children's toys, both u.s. and iraqi leaders called the tactics despicable. >> they poison the air that

iraqi children breathe. they've lit a bunch of oil fires that also poison the air. they've used vehicle-borne improvised explosive devices and detonated them in iraqi areas. >> the government urges residents to remain in the city, over 90,000 fled there hell and earth under isis. aid reaches some of them through nongovernmental organizations or ngos, they aren't getting help from baghdad, everything, the food, the water, even the support for the soldiers protecting them is all coming from the regional government at kurdistan or ngos like the free kurdish rangers and samaritan's purse. >> there's 500 sets of boots and water. each box has meals for ten people or one family.

oliver: meet dave eubank, one of the american relief workers risking his life to help the refugees, he's a former special army rangers officer, they deliver aid and medical care to oppressed ethnic minorities in burma, sudan and now mosul. >> on the de facto border of kurdistan and iraq, and put the lines up as they're fighting isis on both sides. this line, they went back and cleared the villages, all the small towns in between and finally bashica. this is the place that they come, we can bring them food and water and they get vetted and searched and sheep get fed and move to refugee camp there. oliver: how many isis suicidal jihadis are inside mosul? >> i'd say over 5,000.

oliver: humanitarian workers here are constantly threatened with attacks. shortly after our interview, isis militants open fire on dave and his team as they were handing out food in east mosul. gunshots sent terrified civilians running for cover. >> the iraqi army attacks and they're still somewhere out there. now we're back, isis is still there, we're back a little. oliver: the work being done by ngos is crucial as winter sets in. temperatures are dropping and conditions increasingly dire, there is a shortage of fuel and food in the city. as many as 650,000 people are left without water after major pipe lines were destroyed in the fighting. tens of thousands are seeking

camps like this one, where there is food, shelter and medical care. the harsh medical care is jihadis may be hiding among the refugees. even in this hell, there are small moments of joy when some families are reunited with loved ones. >> this is my family, these are my people. i cannot describe the feeling, even my voice fails me. i've lost my voice. >> i have talked to people who, i mean, elderly men and seeing their grandchildren for the first time are not able to recognize children because they burned so much. oliver: up next on "war stories," a rodney and his new business. he teaches lessons to stanley... and that's kind of it right now. but rodney knew just what to do...he got quickbooks. it organizes all his accounts, so he knows where he stands in an instant. ahhh...that's a profit.

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. oliver: in bartela, east of mosul, we met up with ed serving as advisers to the iraqi army. the town was recently liberated from the claws of isis by coalition forces. >> what's the assignment for your battalion in this brigade? >> we're partnered with the iraqi counterterrorism service on an advise and assist mission. two parts to that, we're providing our best military advice to partners to best optimize their plan, advice on integration and surveillance and reconnaissance. one of the things we've noticed here is a distinct lack of medical support for them. you get a couple of ambulances over there. yesterday we watched them racing back from the front with

terribly wounded guys. two american ngos had none of their own, is that something we should be doing? >> so there is an iraqi and coalition combined casualty collection point, so where they evacuate the casualty by coalition medics. oliver: the two american medics in action are pete reed from new jersey and californian derek coleman. >> so the casualty that just left here, how long is it going to take for him to get to a real hospital? >> 40 minutes through the next civilian casualty collection point from there to about a 45-minute drive. oliver: what were this guy's injuries? >> fragmentation from mortar that landed just outside of a store. small frag in his chest, throat, both legs are broken,

arterial bleed on the right. >> packed out the wounds without damaging the legs too much to transport him. put a chief shield to prevent that from getting worse. oliver: though they both have medical training, neither one are doctors, the one thing is obvious, they are extremely dedicated. >> i came as a foreign volunteer and realized that basic medical knowledge goes a long way. pete is an imt and ngo and training on the front lines ever since. >> we're part of a very small slovakian ngo, we make a modest salary, luckily we spend most of our time on the front lines so we're not spending a lot of money. oliver: in the iraqi special forces there is no evidence of medical support for the guys wounded out in the fight for mosul. it's done by ngos, by young

volunteers . i find it to be stunning we've been training at least some iraqi people for the better part of two years, and they don't have a medical capability. how can that number is. >> great questions, the new administration is going to take a fresh look, they should. there's only one commander in chief. we expect the executive branch to come up with a new strategy for the region and specifically for this fight. oliver: how many total, since this kicked off? >> in the past month, over 300. >> over 300? >> 35ish this morning. oliver: and mixed between civilian and military? >> yeah. >> probably 40% of our patients are civilian. today 80%. >> yeah. >> goes up and down. >> we've had today, with him,

23 wounded civilians and 4 dead. that was before noon. >> bad morning. >> yeah, lot of children, too. >> it's been a bad week for civilians, especially children. oliver: in the summer of 2014, isis went on a rampage across the ninevah plains destroying schools, churches and other religious sites. >> we lost a tremendous amount of heritage, a tremendous amount of damage. some irreversible. once you go mosul, you could see the azizis to the muslims to the christians to the jews by the way, my view is iraq is what you might call a global national park.

we need to be preserved for humanity sake. more than just iraqi sake. oliver: one of the towns that was ransacked is the christian town of bartela, home of the st. george church. >> right behind us is a church. >> catholic? >> yes. oliver: what's happened to that? >> it's been burned out, desecrated. reported up as ied-making facility. they take the church from the protective status and use that as a place to store and construct ieds. well over 20 ieds found in that facility and ransacked across the way. oliver: as the battle for mosul drags on, isis continues the barbaric tactic of using civilians as human shields, the innocent have to make a grim choice, killed by isis or liberate isis from mosul control. the third and risky option is back up what little they have

and flee. isis has been telling the refugees if they come to the berm, the kurds would kill them. >> yes, sir, when they came, they were trembling and the kurds hugged them. it was so awesome. and we said get on your phones and tell your friends nobody is going to till you. we have plenty of food, water and medicine. we'll take care of you. oliver: they're telling family members you will be safe? >> yes, sir. oliver: since the fight to free mosul began in mid-october. thousands of refugees have fled to get away from the fighting, not nearly as many as people expected, and that's because isis is holding them tight to use the human shields. those that do make it end up here along this berm, what you're seeing gathered are the refugees that fled over 12 hours trying to find a secure

in the midst of no water, no food in the middle of what was mosul. this exclusive footage obtained by fox news, isis fighters are caught trying to flee. they're engaged by peshmerga soldiers and police. >> medic, medic. >> reporter: as you see it's literally trench warfare, as peshmerga and police fight a downed isis fighter in the trench, another one blows himself up, an all-too-common isis tactic. >> water? water? isis fight for every inch of ground and kills anyone they can. and the peshmerga are defeating them, defeated every isis element. >> you need food? >> yes. >> people are running away from

mosul and running away from isis, when they come here, we try to give them food, medicine, water, anything, and pray. oliver: coming up, you'll hear the harrowing story of a brave woman who survived the clutches of isis.

. >> what's really concerned me is women and children, the civilians, and minoritys. >> since 2014 wars in iraq and syria have displaced an estimated 8 million people, this man reverend al-shaifi

made it hits life's mission to save religious minorities from isis. >> if you are whatever minority you are in the middle east, there will be no place for you in this war. oliver: he converted from muslim to christianity when he was 18. >> at some point in the process you were threatened for having become a christian. how old were you and when did that happen? >> i was 20 years old, and august 15, 1998, i was arrested by the egyptian authority. i was tortured for seven days from hanging me upside down, burning me with cigarettes, putting salt on my open wounds, they crucified me for three days, it was hell on earth.

oliver: when did you form your organization to help rescue christians? >> i started one free world international 12 years ago. we have branches in 28 different countries, from pakistan to afghanistan to iraq, syria, africa, asia, china and beyond. >> seized by isis, thousands of yazidi women and girls are used as sex slaves, thousands are held captive in mosul. oliver: you said about and rescuing the number of women. describe without creating a vulnerability for the process, how you go about finding them and getting them out? >> through the relationship that we have with the kurdish we will rescue between 300 and 400 girls. these girls have a different price, depend on her beauty, depend on her age, depend on she is virgin or not.

so the price can go from 4,000 american dollars to 2,000 american dollars. we were able to locate for markets where they sell the girls and most of them in mosul and some of them in syria and we were able to find or make an agreement, in order to exchange goods in order to save these girls. this operation bankrupted our organization, bankrupted even me myself. i will tell you something, i will sell my suit, my furniture, everything i own to get those girls out, and i have no regrets about it. >> they take us to mosul. oliver: the reverend sat down with a yazidi who was held

captive, sold numerous times by men and tortured by isis. >> they took me to the room and four or five isis fighters raped me. >> more than one fighter? >> five. >> five? >> five. >> i could remember that the first day but after that i was telling down. i didn't know. >> she fainted? >> yes. oliver: she seeked refuge with muslim families but each time dragged back to her captors? >> i escaped and went to muslim family in the neighborhood but they didn't protect me, they give me again to daesh .

i cried, i cried for my safety, please protect me, but they didn't protect me and they give me back. after this, they brought me two of his men and all three raped me at the same time. >> almost everyone we interview want their face covered. what make you choose to show your face? >> because what was happening to me, because what was happen to me, i don't like to the world to forget what happened with us. therefore, i want my voice will come. we will not forget.

i won't let this happen to us. i want the world to know about this. oliver: what will the new administration face from isis and radical islam in the middle east? >> this is an administration that is hitting the ground in 2017 facing four wars. the bush administration, the obama administration didn't have that reality.

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. oliver: as the battle for mosul rages on and iraqi security forces continue their push against isis, many are predicting the city will be retaken. it's just a matter of when. >> how much longer can the fight for mosul go on? >> mentally the iraqis view is beyond mosul. they can imagine and picture that they will defeat isis. i'm more concerned about the theme of daesh or isis which is about intolerance, about destruction. >> we can't look at a soda straw and say how is the fight in mosul going? we look back at what is going on in the region, the spoilers and the players that are there, what are their interests? oliver: what is the answer in. >> it's not just about isis and defeating them in certain towns. it's about taking a step back and seeing what our role is as america in the world.

we're failing to lead, fail to show resolve, failing to stand up to totalitarian regimes. >> when donald trump assumes office as the 45th president of the united states, he and his administration will inherit the war against isis and a splintered middle east. >> is this the time for active intervention? >> my advice for this administration is basically you can't escape reality. this is an administration hitting the ground in 2017, facing four active wars. there is libya. there is syria. there is iraq. there is yemen. the bush administration. the obama administration didn't have that reality. >> this is a main international force. oliver: after mosul is liberated, what does the future of iraq look like, especially for the kurds? we asked the chief of staff to

kurdish president marsude barzani. >> once isis is defeated, that doesn't mean they're not coming back. >> after liberation of mosul, we will enter serious negotiation with the iraqi government. we want to reach our right through negotiation, a process of negotiation and peaceful means. oliver: what does iran's involvement in the region mean? >> what happens if tehran decides to more actively intervene than they already have inside of iraq or even syria? >> that's the plan. iranian regime wants to win the wars in iraq and syria and, of course, in lebanon. just imagine the prospect of a regional iranian power going from the indian ocean to the mediterranean sea with projecting the return of the nuclear weapons. i think the deal we have now with them, they're gaining time, they're gaining time and gaining billions of dollars.

>> they've gotten a new infusion of cash because of the failed iranian deal, they export terror through the region. that's not a good end state either. i'm concerned about iran being emboldened. oliver: one thing is clear radical islamic ideology spread by isis and other terror groups will continue to be a threat to the united states and the rest of the world. >> on the inside of mosul, those who are fighting right now will fight to the end. they have chosen that path. even if we kill their supreme commander baghdadi and others, you know what will happen. another will pop up. this is a movement creating an end to ideology. >> he can call them al qaeda, boko haram, shebab. there is more than 30 terrorist

organizations in syria and iraq. 30. it's not about their names. we're fighting an ideology, an idea. oliver: there's more fighting isis in the battle for mosul, just ahead.

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join us monday. have a good weekend. good night from new york. colonel sanders failed until he was 65 years old. john. john: charlie brown ever learn from his failures. but we can learn from failure. try and try again.